1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an operation recognition system which recognizes a user's operation without a device and controls an object based on the recognition.
2. Discussion of the Background
In the medical field, an image display apparatus is used to support image interpretation, medical examinations, and explanation to patients, for example, through a graphical user interface (GUI). Such an image display apparatus is known as a workstation or an image viewer and is described, for example, in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. PH5-12352.
In general, the GUI used in the image viewer is typically a keyboard, a mouse, or an operation panel particularly provided as the GUI. The image viewer also includes an image display unit, such as, for example, a display monitor or a projector. An operator of the image viewer such as a doctor operates the keyboard, the mouse, and/or the operation panel so as to select, change, and/or set display conditions of medical images or medical examination reports to be displayed in the display monitor orb the projector. Accordingly, desired medical information is displayed in the display monitor or by the projector. Regarding the displayed medical information, the operator can also adjust its size, its alignment, its image quality, its gray scale, and soon. In addition, the operator may add necessary information to the displayed medical information as annotation information.
Medical images are usually acquired by medical imaging apparatuses such as a digital radiography apparatus, an X-ray computed tomography apparatus, a magnetic resonance imaging apparatus, and the like. The acquired images are stored in an image server. Medical examination reports are usually prepared by report clients in a report system or by the medical imaging apparatuses. The prepared reports are stored in a report server in the report system. The stored images and reports can be retrieved from the image server and the report server to the image viewer, respectively, in accordance with operations by the operator, using the keyboard, the mouse, and/or the operation panel. The image viewer is also used to display the acquired images in image interpretation resulting in the preparation of the medical examination report. The operator observes the images displayed in the image viewer and prepares the medical examination report in the report client.
In the image interpretation or the image reference, the operator needs to operate the keyboard, the mouse, and/or the operation panel so as to display desired images or desired reports. Particularly when it comes to an occasion of a conference, quite a number of operators exist for referring to images or reports. The operators need to hand over the keyboard, the mouse, and/or the operation panel to one another during the conference. Such a handover is inconvenient for the operators and restricts their operations. Further, in case of a surgery or an operative treatment, a doctor is not allowed to touch and operate the keyboard or the like during the surgery or the operative treatment from a hygienic point of view. For example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. P2000-222098 describes a hand pointing device which recognizes a shape of an operator's hand and is operative in response to the recognition without an input operation by a keyboard and a mouse.
Such a hand pointing device, however, does not enable the operator to perform the following operations which are usually implemented in a conventional image viewer. Such operations include a drag operation and a double click operation through a mouse operation, and a drawing operation in the screen. The drawing operation includes desired drawing of lines, figures, and characters in the screen.